ON THE 50th ANNIVERSARY OF THE TREATY OF SEvRES

MEMORANDUM

coONCERNING THE ARMENIAN

QuUESTIO N

1970

BEIRUT - LEBANON

1. The shaded circles show the main centres of the 1915 Armenian massacres.

2. The arrows show the direction the 1915 Armenian deportees from Turkey were forced to follow.

3. The above map is taken from the Cry of Armenia, published by the American Armenian Relief Fund,in cooperation with the American Committee for Armenian and Syrian Relief, New York.

1. - INTRODUCTION

The Armenians, one of the oldest nations in the world, are

a people of Indo-European tongue. For 3500 years their home-

land has been the region between the Taurus mountains, in Asia

Minor, and the Caucasus, around the three lakes of Van, Sevan

and Urmia.

With some interruptions, their national sovereignty was

maintained till 1375 A.D., date of the fall of the last Armenian

kingdom. In 1514 Ottoman Sultan Selim I seized Armenia. The

Armenian people suffered under the yoke of the Turks and other

neighbouring nations until 1918, when it regained its inde-

pendence. Since 1920 Armenia has been one of the U.SS.R.

Republics. Today the Armenians number about six millions : 25

millions live in the Armenian Republic; 1.5 millions, in the neigh-

bouring countries, mainly in Georgia, Azerbaijan and the north-

ern Caucasus; the rest are dispersed, chiefly in Turkey, Tran, the

Arab Middle East, France, the U.S.A. etc.

After the fall of the Roman Empire and in the Middle Ages,

the Armenians not only absorbed the shock of the barbarian

hordes off Europe, but also greatly contributed to world civili-

zation in various fields (architecture, music, painting, mathe-

matics, science etc.). In this respect, the dictum of William

Gladstone, four times prime minister of the United Kingdom, is

noteworthy: «To serve Armenia is to serve Civilization»,

H.- HISTORICAL BACKGROUND

OF THE ARMENIAN QUESTION:

After the invasion of Armenia in the XVI century, the Turks

not only occupied the homeland of the Armenians but also denied

them basic human rights, safety and justice in their own land.

'The Armenians were treated as third rate subjects, overwhelmed

by taxation, exposed to occasional wholesale massacres and loot-

ing. They often had their women raped, their villages devastated

and their children kidnapped. Their Christian faith was an

additional ground for more persecution.

In the second half of the nineteenth century, when the libe-

ration process of the Balkan peoples began, the Armenians livingin the Ottoman Empire strove, without any disloyalty, to secure

reforms in the Armenian-populated provinces, with the intent of

establishing conditions which guaranteed security of life and

development of national culture.

The opportunity arose, at the end of the Russo-Turkish War

of 1878, on the Balkan issue. In Art. 16 of the Treaty of San

Stefano, the Armenian Question emerged internationally for the

first time; later, this Article was replaced and attenuated in its

exigency by Art. 61 in the Treaty of Berlin of 1878, whereby«The Sublime Porte undertakes to realize, without further delay,

the ameliorations and reforms demanded by local requirementsin the provinces inhabited by the Armenians, and to guarantee

their security...».

After the Armenian Question was internationalized, Sultan

Abdul Hamid II, using false pretexts, had 300.000 Armenians

slaughtered in the Armenian provinces and Constantinople itself,

between 1894 and 1896.

After the overthrow of Abdul Hamid II in 1909, the Young

Turks continued his policy in regard to the Armenians. The

Armenian demands for reform became more pressing. In February1914 an agreement was signed between Turkey and the Great

Powers, whereby in the Six Armenian Vilayets of Anatolia-

Erzrum, Van,-Bitlis, Diyarbekir,-Mamuret'Ul-Aziz, Sevas-

specific reforms would be carried out, under the control of foreign

inspectors.

INI. - THE GENOCIDE OF 1915.

However, when, in November 1914, the Ottoman Empire entered

into the First World War, the above agreement was annulled.

The Turkish leaders, who belonged to the Ittihad ve Terrake

Party, believed that, if the war was to end with the Allies'

victory, the Armenians, along with the Arabs, would get their

independence, and the Turkish Empire would be completely dis-

membered. Upon a premeditated plan, set in secret party meet-

ings held in Salonica in 1910 and put in its final form in February

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1915, the ruling party of Turkey decided and carried out the an-

nihilation of the Armenians of the Empire.

On April 15, 1915 the Ittihad triad, the Minister of the In-

terior Talaat, the Minister of War Enver, and the SecretaryGeneral of the Party Dr. Nazem sent the following cable to all

the governors and local administrators of Turkish Asia Minor:

«...The Armenian Question shall come forth, which for more

than half a century has already created international interest,

and shall be thrusted in our breast. Therefore, the Government

- which represents the Turkish people and the Ittihad ve Ter-

rake Party - in order to prevent the rise of the Armenian

Question, has decided to put an end once and for all to this Ques-

tion, by annihilating this element of the population. This may be

done by driving the Armenians to the deserts of Arabia, ac-

cording to the orders secretly given to you.

The Government and the Party Central Committee appealto you to assist them in this task with all your forces.

Every officer or government official who rejects this

patriotic work and tries to defend any Armenian will be recogniz-ed as an enemy of the State and religion and will be judged ac-

cordingly.

The pretexts which may serve as reasons to implement this

plan are:

a) Armenian voluntary forces which serve in the enemy armies.

b) Armenian organizations within this country, which will be

accused of plotting against our army.

¢) The great number of weapons and ammunition captured all

over the land.»

A Turkish intellectual and politician, Mevian Zade Rifaat,

reports what Dr. Nazem, Secretary General of the Turkish It-

tihad Party in office, told the General Committee in a secret

meeting: «Now we are at war; there is no better opportunity than

this. The interventions of the Great Powers and the protests of

newspapers cannot be considered; even if they are, the matter

will become an accoimplished fact and soon over.. This time, the

operation must be one of annihilation. It is necessary to exter-

minate all Armenians, not letting one alive.» (Mevian Zade Rifaat,

«Turkiye Inkilabinin Tc Yuzu», 1929, p. 28)

On April 24, 1915, took place mass arrests of the Armenian

intelligentzia and leaders in Constantinople. They were deportedto the interior of Turkey and massacred by atrocious means (A.

Toynbee, «Armenian Atrocities» ; the 1916 British Blue Book,

«The Treatment of the Armenians in the Ottoman Empire»). Next

came the turn of the 300,000 Armenian soldiers serving in the

Ottoman army. They were first to give up their arms and turned

into labour battalions. Within weeks they were taken to isolated

places, forced to dig their own graves, and shot in cold blood.

Once all able-bodied men were wiped out, the defenceless popu-

lation of the Armenian provinces, mostly women, children and

old men fell victim to deportation and slaughter.

Churchill wrote, in The Aftermath, « The Turkish Gov-

vernment began and ruthlessly carried out the infamous massacre

and deportation of the Armenians in Asia Minor.»

Thus, the first genocide of the century was set going. The

3500-year-old homeland of Armenia was robbed of its native

people.

In a letter dated October 3, 1918, and addressed to Lord

Bryce by Robert Cecil, British Assistant Secretary of State for

Foreign Affairs, the latter wrote, «The Ottoman Armenians were

systematically murdered by the Turkish Government in 1915. The

two-thirds of the population was exterminated by the most cold-

blooded and fiendish methods...» Before the genocide 2,660,000

Armenians (Publication du Patriarcat Arménien, « PopulationArménienne de la Turquie avant la Guerre», Paris 1920, p. 9)

lived in the Ottoman Empire, mostly in the Armenian provinces.

1,500,000 of them were massacred. Today Armenians in Turkeynumber only 125,000.

Besides, 2,050 churches and 203 monasteries were gutted. (M.

Mesrop, «Armenian Losses in the Field of Art», June 1931). Ar-

menian schools, farms, villages and movables were reduced to

ashes or appropriated. Valuable manuscripts were looted or burnt;

works of art, robbed or vandalized. Such financial losses amount

to scores of billion dollars, The Armenian lands were usurped.The survivors were scattered all over the world.

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Iv.- THE TREATY OF SEVRES

On August 31, 1915, the Turkish Minister of the Interior,

Talaat Pasha, declared to the American Ambassador Henry

Morgenthau that the Armenian Question did not exist anymore,

since there were no more Armenians.

However, over a hundred thousand Armenians living in the

border areas saved themselves by self-defensive fights; others

survived deportation; while the Armenians living in Russian Ar-

menia were not harmed. Though, the Armenian people had suffer-

ed a crushing blow, and half of its number had been annihilated,

Armenian soldiers and guerillas fought alongside the Allied

Powers on all fronts. 250,000 Armenians fought in the Russian

imperial army. The Armenians delayed the German-Turkish oc-

cupation of Baku oil fields for seven months. The 5,000 strongArmenian Legion fought along with the French and British for-

ces under General Allenby on the Palestine Front.

The Allies promised the Armenians to restore right and justice

by helping them regain their homeland. On his accession to

power, Lenin, on behalf of the Soviet Government, proclaimednot only their right to self-determination but also «the union and

independence of Armenian lands». On January 8, 1918, President

Wilson of the United States declared his famous 14-point state-

ment, which settled the right of self-determination ofall the peo-

ples oppressed by the Turks. In January 1919, the Big Four-

England, the United States, France and Italy - defined the war

aims of the Allies, one of which concerned the oppressed peoplesliving in the Ottoman Empire: «Because of the historic misgov-ernment by the Turks of their subject peoples and the terrible

massacres of the Armenians and others in recent years, the

Allied and Associated Powers are agreed that Armenia, Syria,

Mesopotamia and Arabia must be completely severed from the

Turkish empire.»

Finally, on August 10, 1920, the peace treaty with Turkeywas signed at Sevres. The Republic of Armenia was a signatoryto this treaty along with Turkey, the British Empire, Italy, Japan,France, Belgium, Greece, Rumania, Czechoslovakia, etc.

The most important articles regarding Armenia were:

ARTICLE 88: «Turkey, in accordance with the action alreadytaken by the Allied Powers, hereby recognizesArmenia as a free and independent State.»

ARTICLE 80: «Turkey and Armenia as well as the other

High Contracting Parties agree to submit to the

arbitration of the President of the United States

of America the question of the frontier to be fixed

between Turkey and Armenia in the Vilayets of

Erzrum, Trebizond, Van and Bitlis, and to accepthis decision thereupon, as well as any stipulationshe may prescribe as to access for Armenia to the

sea, and as to the demilitarisation of any portionof Turkish territory adjacent to the said frontier.»

By this treaty the genocide perpetrated by the Turks upon

the Armenians living in the Ottoman Empire was implicitly and

officially recognized. Special tribunals were to be set up by the

Allies to judge all responsible persons whom Turkey bound itself

to hand over to the Allies (Part VII, Penalties, Art. 226-230).

In compliance with the request of Article 89 (See above) of

the Treaty of Sevres and on the basis of the reports presented

by the King-Crane Commission and the Mission of General

Harbord, which had studied the matter on the spot, President

Wilson decided that «the frontier between Turkey and the Vila-

yets of Erzrum, Trebizond, Van and Bitlis shall be fixed as fol-

lows.» (British and Foreign State Papers number 113:052 E,

GBTS 1920:11 (E) ). The attached map shows the frontiers of

the Wilsonian Armenian Republic.

V. - THE NEW TURKISH AGGRESSION AND

THE TREATY OF LAUSANNE

After fierce battles in May 1918 against Turkish troops, the

Armenians of Russian Armenia declared their independence. But,

hardly one month after the signing of the Treaty of Sevres, the

Turkish nationalist forces of Kemal Ataturk invaded the new

Republic in an act of aggression, not only rejecting the

cif

Treaty of Sevres but also threatening the very existence of

the Armenian Republic. After unequal battles, the outnumbered

Armenian forces had no other resort than to accept the humiliat-

ing terms of the Treaty of Alexandropole, imposed on them on

December 2, 1920. On the same day the Armenian Tashnag

Party-led Government resigned and handed over its authority to

the newly constituted Armenian Soviet Socialist Republic. The

latter checked the Turkish advance and also secured the with-

drawal of the Turkish forces from the region of Alexandropole.

As a consequence of this, the Turks imposed their terms

upon the Allies and the U.S.S.R, in the new peace treaty with

Turkey, signed at Lausanne on July 24, 1923. The Lausanne

Peace Conference, despite the resolutions (Nov. 18, 1920; Sept.

21, 1921; Sept. 22, 1922) of the League of Nations in favour of

the Armenians and the pleas of the Armenians for the restoration

of justice and the fulfilment of official promises, relegated the

Armenian Question to the category of unsolved problems. The

Treaty of Lausanne ignored the Armenians. It was nothing but

the acceptance of an accomplished fact, created by the Kemalist

Turkish forces in the Eastern Front, But, if the Armenian rightswere not mentioned, they were not denied either.

VL - THE ARMENIAN CLAIMS AND THEIR LEGAL BASES

The Armenians of the world, whose mouth-piece in Leba-

non acts under the name of Committee for the Restitution of the

Armenian Territories usurped by Turkey, claim the handing back

of all Armenian lands now under Turkish occupation, as well as

full compensation for all human and material losses and spo-

lations suffered by the Armenians within the years 1915 and

1921.

The majority of the existing six million Armenians live out-

side the present Armenian Republic, mostly in the neighbouringcountries and the Middle East. The population density in the pre-

sent Armenian Republic is 72 persons per sq. km.; while, in the

Turk-occupied Armenian lands, it is hardly 10 persons per sq. km.

The Armenians base their territorial claims, as well as human

and material loss compensation demands, not only on the Treatyof Sévres of August 10, 1920 (Art. 89), but also - and in spiteof the deliberate silence on the Armenian Question of the Treatyof Lausanne, which, being the latest treaty of peace in date be-

tween Turkey and the Big Powers, has given Turkey the specious

argument to contest the Armenian rights - on:

A) The Charter of the United Nations:

3. «We the Peoples of the United Nations determine... to

reaffirm faith in fundamental human rights, in the dignityand worth of the human person, in the equal rights of men

and women and of nations, large and small, and to establish

conditions under which justice and respect for the obliga-

tions arising from treaties and other sources of interna-

tional law can be maintained.» (Preamble)

. «To maintain international peace and security and to that

end: to take effective collective measures for the preven-

tion and removal of threats to the peace, and for the sup-

pression of acts of aggression or other breaches of the

peace, and to bring about by peaceful means, and in con-

formity with the principles of justice, any international

disputes or situations which might lead to a breach of the

peace.» (Chapter I, Art. 1)

«...The General Assembly may recommend measures for

the peaceful adjustment of any situation, regardless of

origin, which it deems likely to impair the general welfare

or friendly relations among nations, including situations

resulting from a violation of the provisions of the present

Charter setting forth the Purposes and Principles of the

United Nations.» (Art. 14)

B) The Charter of the International Military Tribunal of

Nuremberg, dated October 6, 1945:

«The following acts, or any of them are crimes coming with-

in the jurisdiction of the Tribunal:

a) ...

b) ...

40%

¢)Crimes against humanity; namely murder, extermina-

tion, enslavement, deportation, and other inhuman acts

committed against any civilian population, before or dur-

ing the war; or persecution on political, racial or religious

grounds in execution of or in connection with any crime

within the jurisdiction of the Tribunal, whether or not

in violation of the domestic law of the country where

perpetrated. Leaders, organizers, instigators and accom-

plices participating in the formulation and execution of

a common plan or conspiracy to commit any of the fore-

going crimes are responsible for all acts performed byany persons in execution of such plan.» (Section II,

Art. 6)

C) The Control Council Law No. 10, for the trials of War Ori-

minals at Nuremberg, dated December 20, 1945;

1) «Each of the following acts is recognized as a crime:

a)...

b) War crimes: atrocities or offences against persons or

property constituting violations of the laws..., includingbut not limited to murder, ill-treatment or deportation, to

slave labour or for any other purpose, of civilian popu-

lation..., killing of hostages, plunder of public or private

property, wanton destruction of cities, towns or villages,or devastation not justified by military necessity.

¢) Crimes against humanity: atrocities or offences, includ-

ing but not limited to murder, extermination, enslave

ment, deportation, imprisonment, torture, rape or other

inhuman acts committed against any civilian population;or persecutions on political, racial or religious grounds,whether or not in violation of the domestic laws of the

country where perpetrated». (Art. 2, No. 1)

For any person found guilty of any of the crimes above

mentioned, «The punishment may consist of one or more

of the following:

a)... b)... c) Fine.

d) Forfeiture of property.e) Restitution of property, wrongfully acquired. (Art. 2,No. 3)

2

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D)) The Universal Declaration of Human Rights, dated December

10, 1948:

1) «Everyone has the right to life, liberty and security of

person.» (Art. 3)

2) «No one shall be subjected to torture or to cruel inhuman

or degrading treatment or punishment.» (Art. 5)

«No one shall be subjected to arbitrary arrest, detention

or exile.» (Art. 9)

«No one shall be arbitrarily deprived of his property.»

(Art. 17)

3

4

E) The Genocide Convention of December 9, 1948:

1) «...The declaration made by the General Assembly of the

United Nations in its resolution 96 dated 11 December

1946 that Genocide is a crime under international law

contrary to the spirit and aims of the United Nations

and condemned by the civilized world...» (Preamble)

2) «..Genocide, whether committed in time of peace or in

time of war, is a crime under international law which

they (the United Nations) undertake to prevent and to

punish.» (Art. 1)

3) «Genocide means any of the following acts committed

with intent to destroy in whole or in part, a national,

ethnical, racial or religious group, as such:

a) Killing members of the group;

b) Causing serious bodily or mental harm to members of

the group;...

4) «Persons committing Genocide... shall be punished,whether they are constitutionally responsible rulers,

public officials or private individuals.» (Art. 4)

5) «Disputes... relating to the interpretation, application or

fulfilment of the present Convention, including those re-

lating to the responsibility of a State for Genocide, shall

be submitted to the International Court of Justice at the

request of any of the parties to the dispute.» (Art. 9)

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F) The warning delivered, in the First World War, by the Ame-

rican Ambassador in Constantinople Morgenthau to the

Sublime Porte, on behalf of the Allies, whereby all the mem-

bers of the Ottoman Government and those of their agents

who were implicated in the Armenian massacres would be

held responsible for their acts. Even the German imperialGovernment, by a note of its foreign office, made a formal

remonstrance on August 9, 1915, and declined any respon-

sibility for the Armenian massacres.

While the Nuremberg Military Tribunal for the trial of

the Nazi war criminals found a legal precedent to judge ge-

mocide (Proposition of the French delegate, Prof. André

Gros) in the massacres of the Armenians and the Allies'

warning during the First World War.

G) The general principle of criminal law, whereby there can be

no prescription for murder; all the more reason for mass

murder or genocide.

H) The fact that the Armenians did not leave their Turk-occu-

pied homeland of their own will, but were dispossessed

through deportation and extermination.

1) 'The fact that the Armenian genocide by the Turks still goes

on, under various forms such as these.

The Armenians in the dispersion are growingly|sub-

mitted to assimilation, therefore to the loss of their national

identity.

Historical and cultural Armenian vestiges in Turkey are

now systematically suppressed, camouflaged or appropriated

by the Turks, so as to erase any remnants of the 3500-year-old Armenian civilization in Turk-occupied territories.

The Turkish Press still dares to threaten openly the Ar-

menian Community living in contemporary Turkey: «Let

the Armenians keep in mind that they live in Istanbul as

a minority. Their welfare reaches such a pitch that it

arouses Turkish envy. Although it is not easy to commit

genocide nowadays, a trifle may perturb the atmosphere.Then, there will remain not a single Armenian in Istanbul.

(« How genocide is carried out today », article published

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in the «. Yeni Gazette », Istanbul daily paper, January 25,

1967)

To crown all, modern Turkey has erected at Ankara,in 1960, a statue to commemorate the patriotic services of

Talaat, the chief organiser of the Armenian genocide of 1915.

VII. - CONCLUSION

It is on such irrefutable grounds that the Armenians pro-

pose that an International Body be appointed by the United Na-

tions to inquire and report about the present state of the Arme-

nian Question. On the conclusion of such an International Com-

mission, proper action should be immediately taken by the U.N.O.

Authorities, so that solemn promises given in international

charters and conventions, appeasement of world conscience and

durable peace shall be effectively secured. Then, and then only,

peoples shall believe in international shaping of right, justice and

peace, and man shall trust man.

Firmly convinced of the thorough justice of their cause, and

trusting in the moral values leading our contemporary

.society,

the Armenians all over the world, in the name of their two mil-

lion martyrs and centuries of torture and spoliation, appeal to all

civilized nations to help them finally retrieve their full rights- restitution of occupied lands, human and material losses com-

pensation -, as have Greece, Bulgaria, Poland and so many other

nations trodden by tyranny and barbarism done in history.Let no one flout the authority of international principles,

in the very face of a humanity constantly ascending towards

more social morality.

The non-chastisement of genocides, the de facto recognitionof annexations accomplished in contempt of all human rights,laws and principles will put a premium on mass crime and inter-

national looting. It is such a vicious example that has given Hitler

the cynical audacity to state, on the eve of the German invasion

of Poland in 1939: «I have given S.S. specialunits the order to pro-

ceed to the Polish Front and slaughter men, women and children

ruthlessly. Who today speaks of the extermination of the Ar-

menians?» (The Times, London daily, 24th November 1945)

August 1970

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TURKEY

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Turkish boundary

» Treaty, as drownPrevident Wilvon (1020)

Committee for the Restitution

of the Armenian Lands

P.0.B. 617

Beirut, Lebanon